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Leanne Abrahams finally follows her interiors calling after 3 kids

Motherhood is what led interior designer, Leanne Abrahams to embrace her undying passion for interiors and turn it into a career. A former copywriter with a media degree, Leanne sunk her teeth into her own renovation projects on the side, completely redesigning each of her three homes with gorgeous results.

Leanne and her kids

“My builder suggested that I consider a career interior design, but I never thought about it seriously.” Leanne’s eye for detail and passion for interiors soon became evident, and she began giving renovation and colour advice to friends and family on their own projects. It wasn’t until she was pregnant with her third baby that the penny finally dropped. “I have never been as passionate about anything as I am about motherhood and raising my kids. I want to be present from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to bed. Having my three kids ignited an undeniable passion in me, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything without feeling that same passion. I liked writing but I wasn’t crazy mad about doing it every day. Whereas my own design projects gave me such immense joy that becoming an interior designer was all I could think about. And I knew I’d discovered my calling.”

One of Leanne’s recent projects

Heavily pregnant, Leanne started a Diploma of Interior Design online and continued to study and complete assessments well after her son was born. “I studied while Bailey slept and when the girls were at school. I handed in assessments at night after the kids went to sleep, and literally did my readings at any free minute I had, and there weren’t many!” After almost two years of juggling and studying, Leanne was qualified. “It was a feeling of a huge relief and mass excitement when I held my diploma in my hands. I had achieved my greatest dream and unleashed a passion that had been burning inside me since I was a young girl. It felt amazing!”

Earlier this year, she launched her business Lily Rose Interiors and it’s no surprise that her business is named after the middle names of her daughters, Sienna and Tyler. “They’re the reason I followed my dream. The passion I felt for them as a mother made me want to discover that passion in my career. I could never do anything I wasn’t in love with. It just wasn’t possible anymore.”

Lily Rose Interiors specialises in children’s interiors and is based on Sydney’s North Shore. Leanne focuses entirely on her little clients’ interests, personality and favourite things to bring to life gorgeous, vibrant, beautiful and functional spaces that ooze style. “My little Sienna is such a playful, fun, energetic little girl with an adoration for the colour green. This led me to create a vibrant space that completely reflected her personality and that she would absolutely love. My daughter Tyler on the other hand, is a very girly, sweet, soft princess and her room is just that.”

Daughter Tyler’s room

Leanne believes that a child’s room should be more than just a place to rest. It should be a space that sparks imaginative play, harnesses creativity and encourages little minds to explore. And it should change as your kids go from baby, to a toddler, to child, to a teenager. “I’ve recently changed my son’s nursery into a toddler room. It has shelves to display his trains with tracks that clip on to transform it into an instant play space. I just love coming up with creative ideas that tap into a child’s interest.”

But the buck definitely does not stop at children’s interiors. Leanne extends her love for interior design into every room in the house, and has just completed a project redesigning a modern apartment in the Gazebo in Sydney. “I just love creating spaces that are unique and meaningful. It gives me great pleasure to take a project from concept to set-up, and see the amazing results come to life. And I especially see my lovely clients’ smiling faces. It’s an absolute joy.”

Now that the passion for Leanne’s interior design career has been fully ignited, it is apparent that this creative road was always going to find her, it just took her three kids to show her the way.